Hong Kong International Airport has been accused of censorship after it removed the logo of a Taiwanese airline in a photo posted to Facebook.
HKIA’s Facebook page was posting about the iconic Boeing 747, which is often nicknamed the “Queen of the Skies.”
“Have you ever come across her at the airport?” the post on Tuesday read.
But commenters questioned whether there was censorship involved as the airport had apparently removed the China Airlines logo that should be part of the aircraft’s livery. Some left comments mentioning Taiwan in apparent protest.
A new Facebook post was issued hours later with the same photo, this time containing the China Airlines logo.
空中女王喺香港機場微服出巡，有無人喺機場見過佢呢？#女王準備視察機場 #波音747The Queen of the Skies is visiting HKIA. Have you ever come across her at the airport?#hkia #hkg #hongkong #airport #Queenoftheskies #JumboJet #Boeing747
Posted by Hong Kong International Airport 香港國際機場 on Tuesday, 11 September 2018
A spokesperson from Hong Kong’s Airport Authority – which manages the page – confirmed to HKFP that the logo was initially removed, as the goal of the post was to introduce the jetliner.
“We have noticed that the photo raised concerns, so we have uploaded the original photo once again,” the spokesperson said.
Taiwan has been ruled by the Republic of China government since 1945, after Japan – which has occupied Taiwan for 50 years – was defeated in the Second World War. The People’s Republic of China claims that Taiwan is one of its provinces and does not recognise it as an independent country.
In recent months, Beijing has been demanding that international airlines comply with its One China policy and change the names for destinations in Taiwan, listing them as regions of China.
All commercial airlines in Hong Kong changed the destination name for Taiwan to “Taiwan, China” ahead of the deadline in July.
The US government has called the demands “Orwellian nonsense.” US-based United Airlines found a creative solution by using currencies instead of country names.
